Anybody can renovate and many Australians love doing it, but not everybody can renovate a property for profit.

The ultimate goal of renovating for profit is to make the most amount of money in the least amount of time and to do it well.

In order to achieve these goals, the following steps are crucial:

1. Don’t Pay Too Much

Buy at or under market value for a property. By doing your area due diligence, and using the research tools available at www.waratahestateagents.com.au and you will recognise a good deal very quickly.

2. Know What You’re Looking For

Examine the type of house that you are interested in purchasing and visualize it finished. Ask yourself: Can you renovate it using its current character? Does that style of home sell well in the area? How much changing around is needed to get it to the point where it looks attractive in today’s market?

3. Check Council Restrictions

If your intention is to renovate, then checks with the local Council are essential. You need to know that the house you are about to work on has all its previous building approvals in place and that nothing around it will impact its estimated post renovation value.

4. Get a Building Inspection

Organize a building inspection and pay particular attention to foundations and pest damage. These issues can be rectified but they cost money, so you will need to factor this into the price you offer for the property.

5. Get Quotes

Quotes from builders and tradespeople will help you recognize if the house is worth renovating, or if the money required to fix it up will leave you with little to no profit at the end. It’s important to listen to your builder.

6. Don’t Cut Corners

Never cut corners with building approvals. Always follow correct Council procedures. The Council will stand by you if there is a complaint, so long as you have all of your approvals and are fully compliant.

7. Consider Your Neighbors and Do Not Attempt to overdevelop the Site.

Try to put yourself in their shoes and ask, “If this was happening next door to me, what would I be the most upset about?” They will already expect the building works to impact their peace and quiet.

8. Consult an Accountant

If you intend to flip the property upon renovation completion, see your accountant before you buy it. They may advise you to set up an appropriate company structure (e.g. a Trust) as the Tax Office will view you as a property trader if your purpose is to renovate to sell for profit.

9. Renovate to Your Target Market

Your renovation project should be designed around meeting the criteria of a purchaser, not just what you consider to be an improvement to its value.
Remember, planning ahead, structuring properly, buying like a professional and renovating to your customers’ requirements will increases your success rate!

Please feel free to call one of the team member at Waratah Estate Agents to know more !

8 tips for securing your home while you’re on holiday

1. Cancel usual deliveries and services

Don’t forget to cancel your newspaper or grocery delivery and tell the gardener you won’t be needing his services for a while. If you’re away for an extended period of time you might also want to have the post office hold your mail.

2. Talk to your trusted neighbours

Ask them nicely to take out your rubbish bins, bring in your mail or feed your pets (if they’re not going to a pet holiday villa themselves). Let them know where you’ll be and when you’ll be home so they can contact you if anything were to happen to your property. And maybe give them a little something for their trouble.

3. Batten down the hatches

Ensure the back and side gate are locked. Obviously make sure all doors and windows are locked as well. Set your alarm if you have one, or consider getting a dummy alarm – they come with stickers for windows to ensure high visibility to ‘visitors’. Bring your spare set of keys inside or take them with you. Set sensor lights. Remove ladders and gardening tools – anything that might assist a burglar breaking into your home. Take valuables with you if possible, or lock them in a bolted down safety box.

4. Look as if you’re home

Have some lights on timer switches so they autmatically come on for a period in the evenings. Even put one on the TV so there’s some noise and light. Leave a car in the driveway if possible. Have a friend mow your lawn and even housesit for the odd night. Hang some washing on the line – it looks like you’re still home.

5. Stop work on your property by outside tradespeople

Where possible, don’t go away whilst you’re building/renovating. However, if you must, just tell the tradies work has to stop for a while – don’t tell them you’re going away. It’s more common than you think to have your house burgled by your very own tradie.

6. Be mindful of broadcasting your holiday plans

With the age of social networking firmly upon us, it’s all too easy to forget that whilst we believe we’re connecting only with friends and trusted souls, much of what we say is public, searchable, and ripe for people to take advantage of. Don’t tell everyone on Facebook that you’re going on holidays in two days time, and don’t tweet about it either. If your home is unattended while you’re away, save the updates and photos for after you’re back.

7. Don’t forget your answering machine!

A continuously ringing phone is a sure sign to a burglar that no one is home. Make sure your answering machine is set. You can also look into having messages or calls redirected so you can access them while away, just in case.

8. Update your insurance

Long before you head off, make sure your home and contents insurance is up to date and you have a copy of the policy details easy to hand. The last thing you want is to have a break in and find you’ve let the insurance slip because you missed the last payment. Sort it before you leave.

It may make you wonder – why on earth would anybody buy a property that hasn’t been built yet. People are buying retirement village homes or apartments as they are advertised for sale before the building has been constructed. Buying a property whose design of building and sketches of its final appearance are yet to get final – is commonly termed as buying of the plan.

Do

Research: Never ever buy the first property you at. Always understand median apartment prices growth, vacancy rates, rents, employment statistics, and demographics (understand who are going to be your prospective tenants and what sort of accommodation they want).

Time: Generally, property prices in Sydney increase annually by between 5% – 7%, but occasionally there may be a dip in values. Nothing to panic here, your investment will serve you well. And with the strong performance that our property market is seeing at the moment, you can feel confident.

Check: Always keep an eye check on your property. Revalue your investment property or properties on an annual basis. It will also give you a clear indication as to how your investment is performing. This will help you to reinvest in an additional investment property by negotiating a larger loan when the time is right. Note: valuation should be done on capital value of property as well as rental value. Check out the developer. Find out who the developer is, what else have they done, have they always delivered? Were other buyers happy with the end results?

Where to Buy: A recent study showed that the top 3 priorities people have for choosing somewhere to live are proximity to schools, work and transport. Some other things to consider are shopping, parks, cafes, restaurants, water and the size of the property. It is simple as people want to live in areas because of the benefits that are associated with that area.

Vision: One must earn profit from a good investment over time. Judge the investment first, not the tax benefit. As a result, invested property should give you a steadily increasing income. While this income will incur some tax, it is important to consider a prospective purchase from its total investment value, not the taxation benefits you receive (negative gearing for example). There is no point in having the negative gearing without capital growth.

Payment: When buying off the plan, the date for completing the contract is usually not until the building is finished. Commonly, the buyer pays a deposit to secure the property, with the balance payable upon settlement.

Don’t

Budget: Don’t over stretch your budget. If you are buying your first investment property, the best advice for you is to be conservative, set yourself a budget and come in under it if possible. Don’t put yourself under financial pressure. I believe wealth has to be built on solid foundations over a period of time.

Alert: Don’t get reassured into a false sense of security just because you’ve been told a number of presales have already occurred. You’re likely to find many are at inflated prices to overseas buyers who are unable to buy established properties, have little knowledge of the local markets and have unique motivations for buying property in Australia such as a desire to emigrate in the future or place their money in a more stable country.

Organize Finance: Don’t expect the agent or developer to wait for you to get your finance organized. Most banks will not give you an approval more than 6 months before completion anyway. Get an indication from your bank that you will be OK then go for it.

Finished Product: Always keep yourself clear that when you buy off the plan, you are paying for a property where the finished product may be different from your expectations.

Contract: NSW Fair Trading recommends that potential ‘off-the-plan’ buyers think carefully before entering into a contract to buy premises which have not been built. Caution should be exercised and appropriate legal and other advice obtained before signing any documents or paying any money.

Conditions: All the conditions of contract should be closely cross checked. Legal advice should be obtained on the benefits or restrictions provided by the terms of the contract.

• Consideration should be given to whether there are any penalties for withdrawing from the contracts.
• Can I make changes to the finishes in the kitchen and bathroom?
• Can I select appliances such as stoves and dishwashers and items such as floor and wall tiles?
• If the building is finished earlier than expected, has finance been suitably arranged?
• What are my rights if construction is delayed? Is my deposit secure if the building doesn’t proceed?
• Can I on-sell during the construction period?

Always read your contract and obtain advice from a lawyer or licensed conveyancer.

Real estate sector is rapidly growing in all world-wide directions. Focusing on winning is crucial which gives birth to competition that makes real estate a competitive industry. The modern era of internet has encouraged buyers, vendors and clients to demand detailed information in desired time frames. Forward-looking companies are constantly looking to satisfy every single customer of varied mindsets, economic conditions, needs and backgrounds. The best strategy to meet these challenges is to manage strong and long term relationship with customers by focusing minutely on their each and every specific requirement. The Key to these challenges is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool.

What is CRM?
CRM is the abbreviation for Customer Relationship Management. It is a model for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers whether it is sales or service related. CRM enables companies to build database about its customers and manage services from one end like details to manage salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements and so forth.

Real estate agents are facing challenges to meet the demands in the modern era.

Huge amount of projects coming to the Real Estate Market gives the buyers a wide choice. Customers who invest in property expect best services in profession because they don’t mind paying premium for the same.

Here every sale is different in terms of location, offer price, features, services provided, sales cycle lengths and so on.

Real estate agents have to maintain a large amount of paperwork. They always juggle with updating To-Do lists, post it notes with reminders, on-going contracts. To maintain all the paper work, files real-estate agents needs a lot of space. More of paperwork means less time with clients in a day.

Property related decisions whether buying/leasing are capital-intensive and buyers tend to have a number of interactions with the developers before finalizing. Keeping a record of all these interactions and analyzing the outcome of each interaction and taking appropriate action to facilitate the lead-to-customer conversion

The Key solution to all the challenges faced by real estate sector is CRM

Real estate agencies that effectively use a CRM system can easily focus on their clients – vendors, landlords, buyers and tenants.
CRM solutions help in effective segmentation of the market. In turn segmentation allows companies to focus and cater to the particular preferences and needs of each group. Most appropriate campaigning can be carried out by targeting the selected groups, thus enabling a comprehensive approach in planning and budgeting. As opposed to targeting one big heterogeneous group, having smaller, specific groups would increase overall productivity & maximize ROI.

In the lifecycle of the real estate sales, the real estate company interact with customers on various occasions such as demand letters for payments, milestone completion, maintenance, etc. Several of these issues are sensitive and any errors/redundancy can cause a serious damage to the customer relationships. With CRM systems, it is possible to configure and trigger automated communications through email/mobile messages, based on transactions taking place in the customer/prospect account.
This is a crucial step to automating sales process. A web-based site administration tool could make it easy to create and manage each property in the company’s portfolio, from basic address information to floor plans and virtual tour, upgrading of packages and status details of each unit in the property.

CRM software helps to configure developments to precisely meet buyer needs, with real time information on locations, cost and availability. It can also be designed to provide real time pricing and inventory information, thus helping to optimize prices, maximize profits, and capture potential lost revenues.

CRM centralize all the documents related to the sales and closing process. Sales people and other key users can create contracts and then management tools make document handling and management easy, leading to better organizing of all kinds of important data. The system helps centralize documents vital to the real estate sales and closing process.

CRM solutions in this industry will serve to improve service operations, increase up selling by capturing, tracking and resolving issues in a unified system. Order tracking and accuracy is also increased. Sales trends which are needed for enhanced decision making and planning are also made available. A thorough understanding of the complicated Real estate market, the alert competitor, the demanding & knowledgeable customer, is all made possible by a comprehensive CRM solution.

In a nutshell, Real Estate sector is the touch point for millions of customers on an everyday basis, necessitating the need to develop and intelligently manage a large variety of customers who have a diversified set of requirements. Providing anything short of excellent customer understanding and service will cause failure. Therefore, it is mandatory that CRM solutions be included in the business process of the Real Estate industry to ensure that customer relationships are strengthened and maintained to ensure maximum profitability. Your real estate technology strategy starts and finishes with CRM.

Introduction

The National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS or the Scheme) is a long term commitment by the Australian Government in partnership with the States and Territories, to invest in affordable rental housing.

The Scheme commenced in 2008 and seeks to address the shortage of affordable rental housing by offering financial incentives to persons or entities such as the business sector and community organisations to build and rent dwellings to low and moderate income households at a rate that is at least 20 per cent below the market value rent.

However on the other side, the NRAS provides an annual incentive to investors (either persons or other entities, like financial institutions, medium to large-scale investors, private developers, not-for-profit organisations and community housing providers) to build and rent new dwellings to low and moderate income households. The incentive is available to approved participants.

The annual incentives last for ten years (indexed annually for the rental component of CPI) and are made up of two parts:

1. A Commonwealth Government Incentive of $7,846 per dwelling per year as a refundable tax offset or payment

Buying your first property can be intimidating stuff. You’ve got to save that big deposit, find a lender you trust who’ll give you a good deal, learn the lingo and compete against other people who might have their eye on your dream home.

But it can be even tougher when you add on extra costs like stamp duty and loan fees.

The team at finder.com.au have crunched some numbers and worked out that with only a 5% deposit, purchasing an established home at the median dwelling price, the upfront cost could be double the size of the deposit.

With a national median dwelling price of $484,563, for an established home where stamp duty concessions are exempt, it would cost first home buyers $24,228 for a 5% deposit plus another $22,000 to $50,000 for stamp duty and lenders mortgage insurance, depending on the state – plus possible home loan fees.

The most expensive capital city for first home buyers to save in is Sydney, followed by Melbourne, then Canberra.

It’s better news if you’re in Hobart or Adelaide.

Waratah Estate Agents are Blacktown Real Estate Agents that focus in Western Sydney Real Estate. If you’re looking to sell your home, buy a home you can trust us in bringing you a great deal around the Western Sydney Region. To find out more about us visit our website

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Waratah Estate Agents with a consortium of experienced team is a professionally managed real estate company specialized in innovative marketing plans for all areas of Real Estate. Our creative team will work to ensure that the look and feel of your property will generate the highest level of activity. Our team can also assist you on the market conditions and the value of your investments, so that you can make an educated move. Your decision to sell your property may not coincide with the perfect market and therefore it is important to know what the market conditions are. The economy is moving beyond the recession but the real estate market still confronts a challenging environment.

We understand the value of our repeat clients, who confidently continue to sell and purchase through us. Our clients count on our excellent service and efficient result, when they refer us to their family and friends. This is how we have carved out a niche in the market to provide professional services to our valuable clients. Our achievement is reflected in the fact that over 85% of our business is referred to us by our satisfied clients.

We assist our clients in buying, investing, selling, renting or managing any kind of residential, commercial, industrial, and warehouse properties irrespective of our clients’ location (globally). Whether the project is individual requirement or corporate requirement, our team is committed to join hands.

Services offered to our Sellers
Help you establish a fair price for your Property
Create and plan point of sale program
Advertise and market the property for you
Organise and commence open inspection for your property
Offer to refer sources for insurance, legal counsel and finance
Help negotiate with prospective buyers
Help to prepare and maintain the property for viewing for buyers

Services offered to our Buyers
Exercise reasonable skill and care for buyers
Assess buyers selection criteria
Locate suitable properties for buyers in accordance with their criteria
Assist buyers in evaluating property in order to select their desired property
Present and negotiate offers or counter-offers
Assist in obtaining finance
Assist buyers in obtaining copies of the contract, floor plan and other specifications if required

If you are eager to get into the market to buy a new property, then here are some tips to help you decide to make the largest and the most expensive purchase
• Savings is the first and the most important point you check before you start
• Affordability check to see if you have enough capital to deal with the initial cost of buying a property like down payment, stamp duty, mortgage insurance, conveyancer fee, pest control, inspection and other petty expenses
• Check with the Banks on the maximum amount of loan that you can get
• Negotiate with different banks on the best rate they can offer you over the prime rate
• Check on the benefits and government grant, if you are a first time buyer
• Check with your accountant or professional, the tax benefits on buying a property and see if you can claim some expenses associated with the purchase of property
• Aim on the property that falls within your limit and affordability
• Check the basic amenities near the property that suites your need, adding to the value of the property at the same time
• Work out your monthly expenses incurred on the property that you are planning to buy
If you are happy with your checklist, then go for it. Remember… some wise people say…..Buying a property is a great way to make investment and build wealth

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Tips from Waratah Estate Agents to prepare a house for an open inspection:
Love at first sight!!! The first impression is the last impression….
An open inspection day is your chance to show off your house at its best to prospective buyers. So here are some tips on how to prepare a house for an open inspection
• Clean inside and outside of the house – Dust, vacuum, scrub, and wash; buff and tidy up all the rooms’ n bathrooms, have no smell like cooking or pets’, clean ovens, cupboards and wardrobes, maintain garden, do weeding, blow dry leaves, have a well painted house, do all repairs and fixes, remove any hazard from entrance, de-clutter the house, clear mailbox and rubbish bins
• Switch on lights, open the curtains, and let air n light come in
• Smell pleasing with air freshener, fresh flowers and scented candles
• If possible leave your pets with your family or friends’ on the day of inspection
• If you have two kids room, shift them to one while marketing your property and leave the other room as spare or guest room and let the buyers decide what they can do with that extra room
• Remove all unwanted stuffs from garage and store room. Store room can be used as small separate study, home office or toy room for kids
• A bowl of sweets or cookies, some coffee for the buyers to show hospitality
• Highlight the selling point of your property… anything that you offer better than other vendors. Newly renovated or if you have customised any area like having an entertainment area like a thatched hut, a lapa or a bar near the pool, built-in braai or barbeque or a Bon fire area, koi pond
• Keep your precious and valuable safe on the day of open inspection
• Gather up some photos that show off your house at its best and put them on in a digital frame on rotation, for people to see
• You must leave the house with the agent and prospective buyer for open inspection
• Have a soothing and right temperature in the house, whether warm or cool
• Arrange furniture and furnishings artfully
• Play light music or some soft instrumental music on the day of open inspection